Pettigrew, John, 1779-1799
Pettigrew, Ebenezer, 1783-1848
Page 1
Orange
County,
University
Oct 3, 95.
Dr
Father
;—
We had the pleasure of receiving your letter within eight days from
the date & were very happy to find that all were well; that that
Mr Bryan was able to go about.
I wrote you about four weeks ago, and informed you that we had the
promice of
Mr Kimbal's bed, but, he now says that he is in great
want of it, but that he cannot b
ear the thaught
of our laying on the floor; and said that he would endeavour to pr[o]cure one
for us. I applyed to
Mr Daniel the other day, & he said that he had a
spare bed, & that he would speak to
Mrs Daniel concerning it; and if she
was willing he would let us have it; he said that he was not acquainted with
the terms that beds hired at.
Mr Taylor
has several hired
to the students, & his price is twelve pounds a year: That is, full as much
as the beds are worth; but, I do not suppose this would be near as much, as we
shall have nothing but the bed: however, I hope you will not make yourself
uneasy, for I am shure we can get one of some person, as the time is but short
that we shall want one.–
We have read since the vacation three books in
Eutropious,
2 five
books in
Cornelius
Nepos, & expect to read about five more, & then to go into
Caesars
Commentaries, which, I suppose will be about the last of this Month. I
reckon we can get them at
Hilsborough,
3 as
there is a very good assortment of latin books there; there are here also, but
no Caesars; we might borrow, but not with translations.–
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We are both very well. I have not taken bark for this ten or twelve
days; my reason was, becaus I had no snakeroot. I spoke to
Mr Hardin to get some for me, but it has not been in his
power yet.–
There is to be a quarterly examination the last of this week, &
a good many of the trustees are to be here. I expect there will be a very good
opportunity of wrighting by
Genral Davie
, as I suppose he
will return to
Hallifax,
within two or three weeks; and after he gets there, he can send it to
Windsor by
the post.
4
We have not yet began to study the English Grammar, but
Mr Kerr
intends that we shall begin it after
the examination. I bought a couple of Grammars of
Mr Kerr
, as he has a large supply of them.
5
I am very sorry that you got disappointed in going to the general
convension,
6 but am
very glad that you returned when you heard of the yallow fever: it has not come
this way as I have heard.
There are now 60 Students, & they are all very well, except one
w
ou
ho
had a fit or two of the ague and fever. I shall now i
nform you of an affair that happened last week, which I am very
sorry for, that is, that one of the students was banished; it was for going to
a cotten picking after eight at knight;
7 he, with
some others, had left the Colledge before, after eight, & received private
admonition by the Faculty: after that two of
Page 3
them
went to this cotten picking. Those two were
Fancis Burton
&
Joseph
Green
.
Mr Kerr
intended to admonish them before the whole
University; but
Mr Green
thinking that he would get off clear, he went
he went away and after he was gone, was
banished by the faculty.
The
steward
provides very sorrily. There is not one in Colledge that does
not complain; for this long time, the bread has not been I am shure, near as
good as
Fillis cooks bakes for herself to eat;
it is impossible to discribe the badness of the tea and coffee, & the meat
generally stinks, & has maggots in it.
I shall not omit getting a list of
the books we shall want next year.
Our shoes are very bad, but we shall en[dea]vour to make them hold
out, as it is a very hard matter to get, up here. I could not get a pair
up for myself for less than eighteen
shillings, I think it would be proper to send up a couple of pairs for us to
wear down, as I suppose ours will be wore out. I have taken the full measure
8 of our
feet, & you will see a
couple of notches on
the side of the paper. That is the full measure.
Therefore please to give our compliments
to our
Mother &
Grandmother
Envelope page
Endnotes:
1.
Pettigrew Family Papers, SHC. Written by
John
Pettigrew
, the letter is addressed "
The
Reverend/Mr Pettigrew
./
Bertie."
Pettigrew
wrote in the lower left corner "To be left
at/the Post Office/
Windsor"; in the upper right corner, "By
Post." A postage endorsement "
Chapel Hill to
Windsr/17 cents" appears in the upper left corner.
Someone wrote "2/2" to the right of the address and "Length of
foot" below the address. Mathematical notations for "unpicked
cotton," "picked cotton," "cotton warp," and
"flax warp" appear to the left of the address. The letter previously
has been published in
Connor 1:434-37 and in
Lemmon 1:168-70.
2. Eutropius,
Eutropii breviarium
historiae romanae
(1471).
3.
Hillsborough, NC, founded on the site of an Occoneechee
Indian village in 1754, is the county seat of
Orange
County located twelve miles north of
Chapel
Hill. Though a bookseller doubtless was a member of this active colonial
community, his identity is unknown.
4. The letter evidently was mailed in
Chapel
Hill instead, as the postage endorsement "Chapel
Hill to
Windsor/17 cents" indicates.
5.
Hugh
Williamson's 1795 account for books purchased for the
University includes forty-eight copies of
Webster's
Grammar at 33 1/3 cents each (
Connor 1:401).
6.
Charles Pettigrew
sought to organize the former
Anglican church into the
Episcopal Diocese of
North
Carolina. Though he was elected bishop of the proposed diocese,
"he failed to attend the next two triennial conventions at either one of
which he would have been consecrated bishop, and at the time of his death there
was neither bishop nor diocese in the state" (
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography 5:76).
7. A cotton picking, according to
Battle
, is "analagous to quiltings, corn-shuckings,
and log-rollings, providing toothsome refreshments. The cotton was placed in
the middle of the room, parties would pick against each other, and amid
good-humored rivalry and rustic merriment the work would soon be finished. Then
the floor would be swept and the neighborhood fiddler [. . .] would strike up
'Molly put the Kettle on,' or 'T-u Turkey, Ty Tie, T-u Turkey Buzzard's Eye' or
'Crow he Peeped at the Weasel,' or 'Old Molly Hare'" (
Battle 1:90). In
leaving their rooms without permission after 8:00 p.m., the students had
violated
University regulations.
8. Measuring from the top of the sheet, one notch is cut into the
center fold at 8 7/8 inches, the second notch, at 9 5/8 inches.